"Exactly," said the Captain; "I could not do less. But I wanted Nort to hear it."
"Well, where is Mr. Carr?" asked Anthy, looking about in surprise.
For a moment no one said a word. And then Ed Smith spoke:
"We've simply got to cut down expenses. I hired Carr when I thought we needed a cheap man to help Fergus—and now I've let him go."
For a moment Anthy stood silent, and just a little rigid, I thought. But it was only for a moment.
"We were going to have Uncle's editorial, weren't we? Mr. Carr can see it later."
She was now in complete command. She got the Captain down into his chair and put the manuscript in his hand. He cleared his throat, threw back his head, pleased in spite of himself.
"It was a hard duty, but here it is," he said, and began reading in a resonant voice:
"We have hesitated long and considered deeply before expressing the views of the Star upon the recent sad apostasy of Theodore Roosevelt. We loved him like a son. We gloried in him as in an older brother. We followed that bright figure (in a manner of speaking) when he fought on the bloody slopes of San Juan, we were with him when he marched homeward in his hour of triumph to the plaudits of a grateful nation——"
The Captain narrated vividly how the Star had stood staunchly with that peerless leader through every campaign. And then his voice changed suddenly, he drew a deep breath.